Recently everything has become more expensive, with inflation hitting everything from toilet paper to your streaming services. Now it looks like Disney+’s price will be going up again.
Recently Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney, recently gave a talk at the 2023 Morgan Stanley Technology. During that event, he talked about Disney+’s pricing and Disney’s thoughts on Hulu.
When asked about Disney+ and its pricing strategy Bob Iger said, “in our zeal to grow global subs, I think we were off in terms of our pricing strategy, and we’re now starting to learn more about it and to adjust accordingly.” According to Variety.
Bob Iger also went on to say that Disney needed to justify better what it spends on content vs what it was making. In short, Bob Iger said, “we have to better rationalize our costs” and “obviously, we have to attract more subs.”
So what does this mean for Disney+ subscribers? Well, according to Bob Iger, Disney+ needs a “pricing strategy that makes sense.”
When talking about the most recent Disney+ price hike Bob Iger said that the company only lost a small number of subscribers, and “that tells us something.”
Disney+ is not expected to make a profit until 2024 or 2025. Disney reportedly wants to focus on making streaming profitable as soon as possible. It is starting to look like to do this, Disney may cut back on the amount of original content they make and raise the price of Disney+.
The question now is when will Disney+ price go up and by how much.
Disney is also looking at what to do with Hulu. Recently Bob Iger made it clear that all options are on the table with Hulu, including selling Hulu.
When asked if Disney would buy Comcast’s 33% stake in Hulu next year like their contract allows or sell Hulu, Bob Iger said, “we are really studying the business very, very carefully.”
After talking about how strong Hulu was, Bob Iger went on to say, “but the environment is very, very tricky right now, and before we make any big decisions about our level of investment, our commitment to that business, we want to understand where it could go.”
Well, it is clear that no decisions have been made yet on Hulu increasing it is looking like if the right offer comes along, Disney is very open to selling Hulu.
For now, we will need to see what happens next. What is clear is Disney’s streaming lineup may look very different in the years to come, both in price and what is offered. Even maybe in what services Disney owns going forward.
Disney is not alone as it struggles to find something that works. Cable TV prices are going up this year, Peacock is ending its free service, and Discovery+ and HBO Max are merging. All of this is happening as companies try to figure out how to become profitable and survive in a very crowded streaming world.